Overheating? Control macbook pro fan!

by Ruchira on June 25, 2012

Is your macbook pro overheating? If you keep your macbook on your lap you might feel the burning sensation on your lap when running few resource heavy tasks like watching flash videos ( yes I found that makes our macbooks hotter than running any other program duh! ) . Typically macbooks are designed to be very quiet. So the fans only spin up at higher speeds if only the temperatures goes higher than say 60C. But thats enough to make the bottom of your macbook hotter.

If you want the fans to spin up at higher speeds even under the medium temperatures you can use a software called Extended Fan control .

This is a great little software to make the fans to run faster thus reducing the hear. I know some may complain that this will make the fans to wear out faster, its true but it takes time, few years. But given the time a person uses the laptop its not an big issue.

It has a “base speed” option as you can see on the picture. Its the base speed which your fans runs on. doesnt mind your mac is hotter or cooler like liquid nitrogen, setting base speed to say X will make the fan always run at X speed.

Adjusting lower threshold will make the fan to start spinning at increased speed at given temperature and higher threshold will make your fans run at highest speed possible at the temp level you set on there.

Its free. But comes with the disadvantage of having to reset the SMC ( System Management Controller ) if you want to uninstall the software if you don’t like it. You can download it here. After installing head on the system preferences to access the fan control panel.

I'm Ruchira Sahan and all posts on this blog are completely my thoughts and writings. I love DIY and Technology. So feel free to contact me for anything about this blog and don't forget to add a comment if this blog helped you!
Thanks